Chapter 2:The Corporate Titan
313 Words
The next morning, Kaito returned to his corporate world, but his thoughts were elsewhere. The meeting room was sleek, all glass and steel, with a view of Kuala Lumpur's skyline. Alex, his assistant, droned on about quarterly reports and expansion plans.
Kaito nodded, but his mind drifted back to Mei-Ling. The way she’d teased him about his Mandarin. The sketch she’d drawn of him in seconds. The paint smudges on her fingers.
“Kaito? The Tokyo deal?” Alex prompted.
“Right. The Tokyo deal,” Kaito said, forcing his attention back. Tanaka was expanding into Japan, and the pressure from his father, Hiroshi Tanaka, was relentless. “Marry a suitable woman. Take over the empire. No distractions.”
But Mei-Ling felt like anything but a distraction. She felt like a breath of fresh air.
That evening, he found himself back at the night market. He told himself it was coincidence. He knew it was a lie.
Mei-Ling was there, setting up her booth. When she saw him, her face lit up. “You came back.”
“I couldn’t stay away,” he admitted.
They walked through the market together, sampling street food and talking about everything and nothing. She told him about her parents, how they wanted her to get a “proper job.” He told her about Hiroshi, about the weight of the Tanaka name.
“You’re not just a Tanaka heir,” Mei-Ling said suddenly, stopping to look at him. “You’re Kaito. There’s a difference.”
No one had ever said that to him before.
As the night ended, she pressed a small painted stone into his palm. “For luck,” she said. “In case the empire gets too heavy.”
Kaito closed his hand around it, feeling something shift inside him. The corporate titan was cracking, and an artist was the one doing it.
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